Request ID: FOI-4457-2324 Date published: 02 April 2024
You asked
1. For each of the three last financial years on how many days has one entrance of Aldgate East been closed?
2. For each year please provide a breakdown of the reasons the entrance was closed.
3. Please provide details of what the threshold is for the station to be considered unsafe due to congestion.
4. “Staff shortages” is frequently the reason provided for the eastern entrance being closed. Please explain what the staff requirements are for the entrance to be open.
5. Please explain what measures TFL has taken to address the staff shortages and when these were put in place?
6. Please provide data showing the passenger usage of the station at peak hours per year for the last three years.
7. Please confirm the estimate income the station generates through passenger use and advertisements per year for the last three financial years.
We answered
Our Ref: FOI-4457-2324 Thank you for your request received on 6 March 2024 asking for information about Aldgate East Station. Your request has been considered in accordance with the requirements of the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act and our information access policy. I can confirm that we hold some of the information you require. You asked for:
For each of the three last financial years on how many days has one entrance of Aldgate East been closed?
For each year please provide a breakdown of the reasons the entrance was closed.
Please see the requested information in the table below. Please note the following:
Time period: 1 April 2021 – 11 March 2024
The data only includes part closures to the station, and not when the station is fully closed
Data collection is based on Service Status messages published by the London Underground Control Centre (LUCC)
The data is taken from the service status message details based on what was reported on the station Electronic Service Update Board (ESUB) screens
If the message is changed it will be recorded as a separate entry meaning one incident could be recorded multiple times.
If an incident spans multiple traffic days, a new record could be created for each day. Therefore the same incident could have multiple records if it goes across multiple days.
All timings should be used as a guide as there may be a delay in reporting.
Station
Disruption Type
Status Message
Start Date Time
End Date Time
Aldgate East
Part Closed
B end (Gallery End) entrance is closed due to the unavailability of station staff.
25/02/2024 09:29
25/02/2024 15:43
Aldgate East
Part Closed
The Gallery End of this station is closed due to unavailability of station staff. Customers should use the main entrance instead.
27/01/2024 05:36
27/01/2024 11:14
Aldgate East
Part Closed
The Gallery End of the station is closed due to unavailability of station staff. Customers should use the main entrance instead.
21/01/2024 13:25
21/01/2024 14:21
Aldgate East
Part Closed
The station entrance on Whitechapel high street is closed due to temporary unavailability of station staff.
13/01/2024 05:25
13/01/2024 12:51
Aldgate East
Part Closed
The Leman Street entrance to the station is closed due to a fire alert outside. Please use the entrance near Whitechapel Gallery instead.
08/03/2022 07:29
08/03/2022 09:33
Aldgate East
Part Closed
The Leman street entrance / exit to the station is closed due to a fire alert outside this station. However the Gallery end of the station is open as an alternative.
07/03/2022 20:36
08/03/2022 07:29
Aldgate East
Part Closed
The Gallery end of the station / Exit B is closed due to temporarily unavailability of station staff. Please use the Main entrance to continue your journey
21/08/2021 00:50
21/08/2021 05:13
Aldgate East
Part Closed
The Gallery end of the station / Exit B is closed due to temporarily unavailability of station staff. Please use the Main entrance to continue your journey
20/08/2021 14:21
21/08/2021 00:50
Aldgate East
Part Closed
Exit's 3 and 4 are closed at this station between 18:00 and 20:00 due to temporary unavailability of station staff.
11/08/2021 17:49
11/08/2021 22:29
Please provide details of what the threshold is for the station to be considered unsafe due to congestion.
“Staff shortages” is frequently the reason provided for the eastern entrance being closed. Please explain what the staff requirements are for the entrance to be open.
A minimum of 3-5 staff are required to safely deal with congestion and safely evacuate the whole station in the event of an emergency. The total number varies based on the time of day and the day itself.
Please explain what measures TFL has taken to address the staff shortages and when these were put in place?
We aim to minimise station closures as much as possible and strive to always exhaust all avenues before making the decision to close station entrances. However, on some occasions it is unavoidable. Like many organisations, we have seen high levels of attrition through retirements and promotions post-pandemic. To address this, last autumn we began a campaign to recruit up to 500 Customer Service Assistants to backfill existing vacancies and form a waitlist for future vacancies as they arise.
Please provide data showing the passenger usage of the station at peak hours per year for the last three years.
This information you have requested is available in the published crowding data on our website: http://crowding.data.tfl.gov.uk/ If you require a more detailed breakdown on station usage (e.g. by day of week and quarter hour) then the numbat output files on the same page will contain this information. The data for 2023 is due to be published in the coming months. Under section 21 of the Freedom of Information Act, we are not obliged to provide you with information which is reasonably accessible by other means.
Please confirm the estimate income the station generates through passenger use and advertisements per year for the last three financial years.
We do not hold this information as we do not record revenue by station. We publish information on income generated across our network in our Annual Report which is published on our website: https://tfl.gov.uk/corporate/publications-and-reports/annual-report Information for the latest complete financial year will be published in due course. If this is not the information you are looking for, or if you are unable to access it for any reason, please do not hesitate to contact me. Please see the attached information sheet for details of your right to appeal. Yours sincerely Gemma Jacob Senior FOI Case Officer FOI Case Management Team General Counsel Transport for London
